Game alt-tabbing or flashing desktop [merged]

Comments

Not saying this doesn't need a resolution, but how does showing the desktop only on loading screens affect gameplay? If it happened randomly during gameplay, I'd understand, but on loading screens...I'm not sure I follow.

@Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:
Not saying this doesn't need a resolution, but how does showing the desktop only on loading screens affect gameplay? If it happened randomly during gameplay, I'd understand, but on loading screens...I'm not sure I follow.

You must not play WvW or anything like a boss train where moving fast between maps is an imperative.

Example: When one is being called to an Emergency Waypoint in WvW, that blinking screen, which is more than three seconds in some cases, can cause
instant death and a loss of the property.

It's also extremely disorienting to those with brain damage and vertigo/inner ear issues.

Nausea and dizziness are instant when this happens, this is impacting not only the game, but people's health.

For the last few weeks , anytime I switch from one location in the game to another, I end up on my desktop for a few moments. There is a slight flickering of the desktop, then I get transported to the location I intended to go to.

Adding my voice to the others for the loading screen issue. Updated to latest windows on my gaming lappy and it now jumps back to desktop on loading screens for a few seconds and back into the game. It has no impact to how I play the game as I'm just doing PVE and it's only on loading between zones or whatever, and always comes back before loaded into the new area - it's a little annoying, but not a huge problem to me so not sure I want to go through the hassle of raising a ticket that will go ignored for the better part of two weeks to try solving a problem that doesn't really bother me that much!

@Inculpatus cedo.9234
My issue started out with the loading screen and map change like everyone else. Then it also started to do the same exact thing as map change but while I'm playing. It is not a different issue.

It's not just related to that focus assist thing or windows update 1803 - i'm on windows 10 update 1709 and my game tabs out to desktop anytime i get a loading screen/change maps, and i have to alt-tab back in. I haven't played in a couple years and only reinstalled the game over the weekend - have been having this issue since i installed.
edit: it's also not limited to Steam or Nvidia as some people suggested, as I don't use Steam and I have an AMD card. This is the only game where I'm having this issue.

@Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:
Not saying this doesn't need a resolution, but how does showing the desktop only on loading screens affect gameplay? If it happened randomly during gameplay, I'd understand, but on loading screens...I'm not sure I follow.

For me, when I minimise/maximise the game too much, my frame rate eventually drops from it's usual performance suddenly to 3FPS. Closing/re-opening the game fixes this, it's how the game interacts with my system, I think it crashes a gfx driver. It's why I now follow guides on my smartphone rather than my desktop.
So I'd prefer to not have my game flash my desktop, purely for this reason.

@mofokraken.5734 said:
It's not just related to that focus assist thing or windows update 1803 - i'm on windows 10 update 1709 and my game tabs out to desktop anytime i get a loading screen/change maps, and i have to alt-tab back in. I haven't played in a couple years and only reinstalled the game over the weekend - have been having this issue since i installed.
edit: it's also not limited to Steam or Nvidia as some people suggested, as I don't use Steam and I have an AMD card. This is the only game where I'm having this issue.

This. It may seem like it's the Windows update but it's not. It's something that got changed in the game client recently. Perhaps whatever they did to reduce the new zone's loading times. The game is dropping out of DirectX's full screen exclusive mode during asset loads.

Not only do I have all the issues with alt-tabbing on load screens and have tried every solution, I have always used hidden windows taskbar and it now shows up when I am in game should I hover where I have it set to be. (For example hovering over the mastery bar in game and having a windows bar not only pop up but cover that part of GW2 in fullscreen making it unable to be clicked.) Windows update broke GW2 like this for everyone I know!

Hello all. I just wanted to add myself to the list for desktop flashing on zone transition. Two computers on two separate accounts are affected. One in-game bug report sent from one computer.

My issue started after the April 2018 Windows update. Pretty positive that it is the cause since both computers started having this issue despite different installation dates for the April 2018 Windows update.

I have tried the aforementioned suggestions (turning focus assist off and running as administrator), but with no luck. Graphics driver is current. Both computers have different specs, so it is unlikely that it is a hardware/driver issue.

Some observations that I hope may help:

home instance maps load just fine (even though MapLoadCompletion % starts from 0%; not sure if this is significant)

waypointing to a different location within the same map does not result in the "desktop flashing" (MapLoadCompletion % starts at 100%?)

loading dungeon and fractals instances result in "desktop flashing"

the timing of the "desktop flashing" appears to occur towards the very end of the loading **after **MapLoadCompletion % hits 100% (observed this in Lion's Arch because it loads slow enough even with an SSD)

Told to put in a ticket, so I did, and they keep replying by asking me the same stuff I already provided in the original ticket. Completely ignoring ever word I wrote, and completely ignoring the file I already gave them. I am so angry with them right now. If they don't know what's up then just say so. Playing someone for a fool by repeatedly asking for the same info already provided is beyond disrespectful. Yeah I don't see this being fixed any time soon. Feels like I'm dealing with EA right now.

@Haleydawn.3764 said:
On page 3 onwards, this thread has been wrongfully merged with a Deadeye feedback thread, as well as being merged with an older thread not related to the newest issue of game interaction with Win10.
This entire merge is a mess and not very helpful. @Gaile Gray.6029

And second, Anet apparently doesn't see the alt-tabbing trouble as common, despite the posts here and the shared issue by several of my guildmates since the recent Windows update. So:

@Gaile Gray.6029 said:
Even while the CS Team is super busy, we would like to ask you to submit a ticket to them, so that they can gather more information and help you out, too! You should use "technical support" as the reason or the "bucket" for your ticket, to best assign it.

I've done that. I hope the CS Team can make enough sense of this tangled thread to see that there's a compatibility issue with their loading screens and the recent Windows update.

Time to add my voice here. I'm having the same thing. In addition to the flash to desktop on map changes, it also does it when I change my graphics preset setting. I've tried all the suggested fixes with no success.

Just adding my voice to this thread in the hopes that it will contribute to a fix of this issue (or at least leads to some attention regarding this issue).

I'm experiencing the random tabbing out since today - this issue started the second the most recent Windows 10 update (version 1803) was applied to my system.

Actually, the "tabbing out" in my case is more like the GW2 window getting transparent/invisible, while the GW2 specific mouse cursor is still visible, as well as the title bar of the GW2 window (visible in the upper left corner of my screen). This mostly happens during client startup (when it switches from launcher to character select) and during map loading screens.

Some details which based on this thread might be relevant (if you need more info please let me know):
* I have Steam installed and running in the background - I doubt this has anything to do with it though
* Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti
* Issue appears (as tested) with driver versions 397.31 and 397.64
* I'm playing the game in Full Screen - 2560x1440 @144Hz
* Changing to "Windowed Fullscreen" seems to fix the problem during loading screens, but leads to a white screen while character select loads (no idea if this is normal since I usually prevent using this mode entirely)

After that to avoid updating to the April 2018 update, you have to defer important updates in Settings> Updates & Security panel > Advanced Options. But if your windows has updated recently, it will only keep the old files for 7 days or more, until it gets deleted.

Had it before the Win10 update.
Since a week or so when swapping maps, alt tab out and back in the game switches to a desktop screen with gw2 in the upper left corner minimized for 3-4 seconds, after that it returns to normal.

It happens on logging to another alt ( in the same map ).
The map loads showing the poi,vista and wp numbers then switches to minimized view for 3-4 second
Same happens on alt-tab to browser when going back by clicking gw2

Windowed Fullscreen doesn't have this issue.

Not Windows 10 update related as I only did that after it already happened

GTX1070
I7-860

Does't look like a secondary program or graphical card issue, just some setting that minimizes the loading screen for a while.

I've been experiencing this issue after the Windows 10 update.It happens during map loading and when I alt -tab, also happens when I change the graphics presets in the in-game display settings.
gtx 1070
1600x

Thank you for providing this link. For people who prioritize a bandaid fix for some flickering in a video game over an up-to-date operating system this might be a solution.

To those who use their PCs for other things as well (which might require an up-to-date OS), this is not exactly a viable one, sadly... Even though one might argue that the newest OS version isn't always the best -> there are other strange things happening since this update (like an OEM partition suddenly showing up with a drive letter assigned to it, while Windowns happily complains about "not enough space" being left on it). Maybe we are lucky and there will be another update soon addressing some of the issues. But my hopes for this very specific issue with GW2 magically disappearing with the next update are very low.

I guess it can't hurt for ANet to look into the Full Screen Mode's behavior as well, since by now some people claim the issues already appeared for them before the Windows update... But who knows what strange combination of software being in use might cause this...

@Zedek.8932 said:
Wait, you are "keeping it in mind" for "future" "adjustments"?
This is crippling the mechanics, it should be top priority to be fixed immediately.
If you don't test these terrible Deadeye changes (on all levels), you already saved time. Now you can invest these for at least a tiny bit of quality management.

I found that my 'GW2' is not staying contained in its UI

Please someone, stop the map flashing to my desktop at every single map change!

@Zedek.8932 said:
Wait, you are "keeping it in mind" for "future" "adjustments"?
This is crippling the mechanics, it should be top priority to be fixed immediately.
If you don't test these terrible Deadeye changes (on all levels), you already saved time. Now you can invest these for at least a tiny bit of quality management.

I found that my 'GW2' is not staying contained in its UI

Please someone, stop the map flashing to my desktop at every single map change!

You are quoting someone that is responding to the Deadeye changes thread that was merged with this one, if you are not aware. A merge snafu.

@Cassiel.9230 said:
Same issue here. Running the game as administrator and turning off the new Windows-Fokus-assistant was able to reduce the duration the "alt-tabbing" (similar to duration in the video above).
For me this started after the new Windows 10 update. I have a 1070 graphics-card and just installed the newest drivers. Right now im reinstalling gw2, but after a first try the "alt-tabbing" is still there. As soon as the game is installed completely i will write an ingame ticket.

Hey there, Cassiel (and anyone else who might be thinking about sending in a ticket!)

Can you submit your ticket through the support site instead of through an in-game ticket? While the team will see and review reports that come in through the in-game system, we support agents can't reply to them and open a dialogue with you to easily request additional logs or to recommend other troubleshooting steps to you.

Lead GM Magister - The one that deals with tech support questions. (✿╹◡╹)

@Cassiel.9230 said:
Same issue here. Running the game as administrator and turning off the new Windows-Fokus-assistant was able to reduce the duration the "alt-tabbing" (similar to duration in the video above).
For me this started after the new Windows 10 update. I have a 1070 graphics-card and just installed the newest drivers. Right now im reinstalling gw2, but after a first try the "alt-tabbing" is still there. As soon as the game is installed completely i will write an ingame ticket.

Hey there, Cassiel (and anyone else who might be thinking about sending in a ticket!)

Can you submit your ticket through the support site instead of through an in-game ticket? While the team will see and review reports that come in through the in-game system, we support agents can't reply to them and open a dialogue with you to easily request additional logs or to recommend other troubleshooting steps to you.

I've done that for over a week now, and they keep asking me for the same info that's in my original ticket. They are either not reading them, or trying really hard to dis us while buying some time. I knew what they would be asking for so I gave them everything. Now their solution is to just run in windowed mode which is not an option for me because windowed has microstutter, and gsync although can set it to windowed and fullscreen runs like garbage in that mode.

I've noticed this too, right after updating my laptop to the latest windows 10. I thought it was the game at first, and redownloaded it thrice, but it still seems to be occurring. I'm with the people who think this is a Windows issue, and I'm curious to see how it can be fixed from the game side (since Microsoft will Not do anything about it, and the best we can do is roll back to a previous version)

And add me to the list too. Did the latest Windows update yesterday, and after that both GW1 and 2 do the same thing when loading, as described above, and show the windows desktop. Thought it might be a discrepancy between the latest Win10 update and Nvidia drivers, so I updated those too, didn't solve the problem. So it's not the latest Nvidia drivers. Never had this happen before. It's definitely Windows 10 latest update related.